511 Subscriber Live Stream Prep

So beyond my wildest expectations (I estimated about 50 subscribers by the end of 2017) I’ve hit 511. To celebrate I thought I’d do a live stream of some sort. I’ve done live streaming before with games on Twitch, but not on YouTube. Also I don’t expect anybody to watch on Twitch! But there’s a chance some regular channel viewers may come along and hang out.

This makes me quite nervous. I’m going to code something, live, on stream in front of the internet. I know what it is I’m coding, but I’ve not coded it yet! That is to say I’ve planned it, I know how to tackle the problem, but I’m unsure if the end result will be any good. Also, knowing just how many takes and edits go into the videos, I’ll be exposing all the mistakes I make! Then there’s the unexpected. Will I have technical difficulties? What if someone asks awkward questions? What if I get swatted? Well, I’ll be honest, I don’t anticipate more than a handful of viewers so it’ll all be OK, probably.

I’m more concerned that the subject matter just won’t be what people have come to expect from the channel. I’ve picked something reasonably quick and simple to do, as I’d like to get the whole thing done in an hour – that way it could still be used as a regular video.

511 seems a bit of an odd number to celebrate, but it’s a nerd thing. In binary its 0000000111111111. Its similar to watching a counter get to a nice round number, except its when the counter has a long uninterrupted string of ‘1’s in it.

Being new to the YouTube way of doing things, I expected that when I created the event that all of my subscribers would be notified. They were not. So I hurriedly put together a short teaser video to announce it, knowing that for some of the subscribers, they will be notified.

I liked this video. I only wanted to spend 10 minutes doing it, but then I wanted it to look and sound right. I particularly like the sound building up then cutting off just before the end.

It would seem the video has had the effect I wanted. Within 24 hours it had had 150 views. Being less than a minute long, I expect most watched it until the end. At the end, it delivers a link to the location where the live stream will take place, and lo and behold, people had left a few messages of support there.

I’m frequently humbled by the attention of my audience. It takes effort to say nice things to people on the internet, and the feeling of satisfaction from a nice comment never goes away.